Mum-to-be dies in car crash with fiancé just 30 minutes after discovering she was pregnant
A TRAGIC mother-to-be was killed in a car crash alongside her fiancé - just half-an-hour after she discovered she was pregnant with the couple's first child, an inquest has heard.
Hannah Sanders, 20, was driving back from collecting keys to a new flat with her boyfriend Lee Palmer, 26, when she lost control of her vehicle.
An inquest into the couple's death in Friday heard how Miss Sanders' car came skidding across the road straight into the path of a Toyota Hilux, driven by Rita Heath.
Mrs Heath, 75, described the moment she saw the Renault Clio "slide" across the B269 road in Surrey before the two cars crashed into each oher on April 25.
She told a coroner's court in Woking: "The motor came round the bend and slid across the road
In reality, we shall never know the reason Hannah lost control
"I looked and thought 'My God, they are on my side of the road'."
Mrs Heath said there was "no way" she could have avoided the car, telling the court: "It was over in seconds."
The court heard how it was raining at the time of the crash and that Miss Sanders had "struggled to control" her car as it came round a corner.
Tragically, the court also heard how the childhood sweethearts, who had met at secondary school, had just discovered they were to become parents.
Miss Sanders mother, Patricia, told the inquest: "Hannah only found out she was pregnant about 30 minutes before she died."
Ruling the deaths a result of multiple injuries sustained in a road traffic collision, Coroner Simon Wickens said: "Hannah was struggling to control her car at the time. It would have been a fast moving incident. There was very little more Rita Heath could do.
"In reality, we shall never know the reason Hannah lost control."
After the fatal car crash, friends and family flooded social networking sites with tributes for the couple.
Julie Thornton posted: "Thinking of you Hannah Sanders, your family and friends on this very sad day. Sleep tight princess. R.I.P."
Natalie Jayne added: "Rest in peace beautiful angel! Thinking of you and your family on this very sad day. Sleep tight gorgeous girl."
